Raph's Breaking Point
by Mikeyluver97
Summary: What will happen to Raph when his shell-cycle is hit by a drunk driver. Last of the mini-series I am doing when dramatic and life altering events happen to the turtles. Rated T for mild swearing and mild blood shed.


Raph's Breaking Point

a/n: This is the last one-shot I have based on life changing events for the turtles. I had originally thought of this idea for Donnie, but I think that Raph would put up more of a fight. So I gave the idea to him and switched them around a bit. I own nothing. Enjoy! :)

He felt alive as he sped through the streets of New York City on his motorcycle. There was something about dodging people trapped in their metal prisons that made him feel free. Until he reached a red light. Raphael sighed as he put his giant, green, scaly, two-toed foot on the tarmac. The lights were flashing amber. Then green. He kicked his foot off the ground and sped away unaware of the danger he was in.

Up the nearest side street a car was speeding and swerving. The traffic in NY was bad enough without drunks getting behind the wheel. The drunk hadn't seen the light change from green to red, so he carried on driving. As he did a bright red motorcycle passed, completely oblivious to the danger. The drunk hit the side of the bike sending the driver flying down the road. His helmet came flying off knocking him unconcious. The car slowled to a stop as the motorcycle fell onto it's side. The drunk man seen the appearance of the person, no wait thing he had hit. It was enough to sober him up.

Paramedics had been called by one of the many onlookers, and thankfully they had already arrived on the scene. "We have a male, I can't tell what he is a frog or maybe a lizard. Oh wait a shell probably some nut job in a turtle costume." One of them said to the other. The other carefully touched Raphael's shell.  
"I don't think that this is a costume. Wow that is pretty cool." Conveintly a ringing sounded from the belt. They pulled out what appeared to be a cell phone in the shape of a turtle's shell. The second paramedic answered it. "Hello." She said down the phone.  
"You don't sound like Raph." A voice sounded. It was female, sounded about fifteen or sixteen.  
"Is that his name? Raph?" She asked. The voice answered with a hold on. After a minute or so of waiting a different voice sounded.  
"Hello my daughter said that you answered Raphael's shell cell."  
"So his name is Raphael? Sir could you tell me his full name and his age preferably his date of birth."  
"I cannot give you his date of brith. I adopted all five of my children." Sighing Splinter told the paramedics that he was fifteen. The paramedics in turn told him what hospital they were going to take Raph to. After that Splinter thanked them for giving them the information.

"My children we have to go to the hospital. Your brother was badly injured." From that came four shocked expression on their faces.  
"I knew that it was a bad idea for him to go out tonight. I warned him against it." Leonardo yelled and stormed off to the elevator. "Are you guys coming?" He asked when he realised that they were staring at him.

On the way to the hospital the mood was sombre and nobody said a word. The battleshell pulled over at the hospital's underground parking bay. Donatello put the money for the parking meter in. They had no idea how long they were going to be there. Or what condition Raphael was in. They were thankful that somebody realised that Raph needed medical attention. Making their way to the reception of the hospitals trauma centre Leonardo was nearing livid at his brother's accident. "Where is Raphael Hamato?" He asked taking charge.  
"Raphael is still in surgery. His back was badly inured but they can't get to the injuries because of his shell." Finding the whole situation unbelieveabe Leo turned to the twins.  
"Do either of you guys know of any way to get into his shell?" He asked them. Don shook his head sadly.  
"I have been working on a theory that might allow a doctor to get into his spine and maybe his spinal chord. But it is risky and not fully developed into a proper procedure. He could loose the part of his shell that protects his back of not done correctly." Samie told the small group. A doctor over hearing what Sam had said walked over to the turtles.  
"Young lady. I am the doctor assigned to Raphael's case. Do you think that you could teach me the procedure, if not preform the surgery."  
"I'm not a doctor, just a medic. I don't have a medical licence. Don't think that is even legal." Sam looked at her family and seen a look of distress. It was then that she knew that Raph needed all of their help.  
"Okay. I will help you, but for legal reasons I cannot preform the surgery."

After the surgery Raphael had been put into a chemically induced coma. "There was swelling in his spinal chord, when he wakes there is a possibility that he will be paralysed. And whether or not he will walk again cannot be determined until he wakes up. You can see him now." The doctor lead them too the room in the ICU that Raphael had been situated in after the surgery. When they got there they seen a circus of paparazzi surrounding the door to the room.

Something in Splinter snapped when he seen all those humans surrounding his injured son. Walking over he tapped one of them on the shoulder. "Excuse me, I do not wish for you to take pictures of my son while he is in a bad condition. Please remove yourself from this room before the security guards remove you and your friends."  
The man looked at the rat and responded by taking a picture of Splinter. "Sorry rat dude, I got a job to do." He responded. There was a throat clearing sound coming from behind Splinter.  
"I believe that our father requested you to stop taking pictures of our brother and the rest of our family. We've been through enough today without you making it worse." Leo said close to snapping himself. Seeing a look in both Leo and Splinter's eyes the reporter turned around and spoke to his co-workers. "Hey guys, I think we better go. These kind, eh, people, wish to visit a family member, better clear out." The reporters did leave not sensing the fear in his voice.

Eventually getting into see Raphael. The turtles each found a seat and sat in it. Donatello found a corner and called their friends to tell them what had happened. By the time April and Casey arrived everyone had fallen asleep in his room. Placing the blankets that they had brought with them over them and stood beside Raphael on the bed. Upon spotting the tip of a Sai. Casey walked away from the bed and over to Donnie's duffel bag. He carried the Sai to the bed, pulled down the thin covers and carefully placed the Sai in his belt avoiding the wires that were all over his body. April couldn't hold back any more. She put her hands over her eyes and broke down into tears. Of any family in the world, why did this family have to be shot down every time their lives were going well. Was it because they were different, or was it because they were good sort-of people who did all they could to look out for the little people. April didn't know, but she did know that Raph did not deserve to be in that accident and that his family did not deserve to be tortured while waiting for him to be brought out of a coma.

Samantha and Donatello put all of their energy into hunting down the man who had done this to their brother. It took them about a week to do so. Sam walked up to his front door and chapped. When it was him that answered the door something told her to put him and his family through the same amount of pain and suffering that he had with hers. "DO YOU LIKE DRINK DRIVING?" Came her first question. "DO YOU LIKE PUTTING TEENAGERS IN COMAS? PUTTING INNOCENT FAMILIES THROUGH GOD KNOWS WHAT KIND OF SHIT?" Her fist connected with his face as tears streamed down hers. "BECAUSE OF YOU MY BROTHER IS IN A COMA. BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SOBER UP LONG ENOUGH TO DRIVE!" Hearing the sound of shouting a woman came to the door to witness Sam punching her husband six ways from Sunday.  
"Hey get off of my husband!" She yelled. Noticing the woman at last Samantha turned around.  
"Why don't you tell them that your husband put a fifteen year-old in hospital by drink driving. I am not going to say that I am innocent, I would be lying if I did. But I can honestly say that he deserves every punch I throw at him." Sam went back to the half concious man on the front path. And once again was laying into him. Having had enough of watching her husband being beat up by a teenage girl, the wife pulled out her phone.  
"Hello there is a giant talking turtle beating up my husband." The operator asked for address and the Wife willingly agreed. Not even hearing the call and only really seeing red. Sam kept on going.

Five minutes later the police arrived and took Samie to the police station. "Listen according to your statement you did this because the victim put your older brother in a coma. Don't you think you dad has enough to worry about without you being arrested for assault?"  
"I do, but I also wanted the ass hole who put him there to get what is coming to him."  
"Young lady I would appreciate it if you stopped with the bad language. Everything you are saying at this point is still being recorded for court." The officer that was taking her details warned her.  
"If it helps anything, I am pleading guilty. I done something wrong and got caught. And for that I deserve to be punished."

That statement did help Sam a lot. After pleading guilty it reduced her sentence from four months to two. After eight weeks Sam was sent home and made to see a parole officer every week for a year to make sure that it didn't happen again.

After 12 weeks Raphael opened his eyes. All he could feel was pain, mainly from his shell and wanted to say something about it. "Raphael, Raphael can you hear me." A voice sounded. "Don't speak, you have a breathing tube down your throat." At that Raph attempted to stand up. He felt a gentle push and realised that it was fruitless to attempt that again. He slowly put his arm up to the tube that was attached to his mouth. He pulled hard on it before the doctor could try and stop him. "Please don't pull on your tubing. If it is bothering you we can take it away." The doctor told him. Raph signalled that he wanted to write something down.

A pen was placed in Raphael's hand and guided to the paper. He wrote a sentence. 'I'm in Pain and I can't feel my legs.' The doctor said that they would bring the tube out of his throat. When that was over with Raph asked the question that everybody was dreading. "Guys what da shell happened? Why am I in da hospital." The other turtles looked at each other and back at Raph. "What. Do you have something in my teeth." He asked.  
"No Raph you don't" Leo began. Being the oldest, especially since Master Splinter had left the room, he felt that it was his responsibility to tell him. "There is no easy way to tell you this, but your motor cycle was hit by a drunk driver when you were on your way to Casey's place and you have been in a coma since then." Leo paused and let the information sink in. "That was 12 weeks ago. A lot has changed, and the doctors said something about swelling on your spinal chord. Raphael your paralysed." Raph laughed as if the whole situation was funny to him.  
"Come on guys you could do better than that. Where are the hidden cameras? Mikey did you set them up to this?" It was obvious that he didn't believe a word that Leo just said.  
"This isn't a prank Raph, look at where we are." Raph looked around at the room. He was in a hospital. Michelangelo came into view.  
"Guess what Raphie. When you are well enough, we all get to go to school." Raph didn't know what to think of that. Thankfully his faithful younger siblings (Sam and Don) decided that Michelangelo deserved a smack upside the head for what he had said.  
"Sensei told us not to tell him that yet. He has been awake five minutes and you spill the beans." Don started.  
"We blame you for when Master Splinter finds out." Sam finished. Raph smiled when he seen this perfectly ordinary interaction between his family.

Several weeks later Raphael was allowed out of the hospital. It was great for him to see the lair again. Even if he couldn't do anything other than sit on his ass bored out of his mind. By the time that the others were sparring against each other in a weapons training session, he realised that he would never be able to do that again. It was slowly starting to settle in to his brain, he would never do any of things he loved again. No more riding his bike. No more roller skating through the sewers and no more patrols, which in turn meant no more wild and quite frankly far fetched adventures with the four people that he loved more than anything. Instead he had to go to school. At least Angel would be at their school. He had been going out with her for the last few months. Since that Christmas dinner when all their friends came to the lair. That girl was just so much like himself that it was scary. Angel Johnstone wasn't afraid of anything. And he liked her fearlessness.

A week later and it was time for school. The five turtles walked into the main reception and were completely overwhelmed with the sheer size of it. It was Raphael's first reaction to jump into a nearby corner and stay hidden until the end of the day. Unfortunately for him, his four siblings wouldn't let him do that. "It's not enough that we are already being ridiculed by the media. They have to send us to school while they are at it." Don said voicing exactly how Raph was feeling. It was then that he spotted his purple haired girlfriend having an argument with a girl in a cheer leading uniform. "I don't care what you think. Nobody does, Angel sweetie you are nothing but a loser and a liar." Raph wheeled over to the girls.  
"Hey if anybody is a loser, it isn't my Angel. It's you for having to put someone down because they don't wear a uniform like yours or have as many friends."  
"Raphael. You are right. Why do you insist on putting me down. We used to be friends. That was until you got that uniform, that's when you changed and I don't like the girl you changed into." Angel looked over at the other turtles. "I know who my real friends are. And that we will always be there for each other." She slammed her locker door shut and walked to Samie and they put their arms around each other. "Good bye Gracie. Hope you have a good life." Angel finished.

When the six had gotten away from the shocked cheer leader, they began laughing. "Come on you guys need your timetables before the first bell goes. I cannot wait to show you around."  
"Miss Johnstone you better not have been sent to the principals office again." Said the receptionist on duty.  
"No Miss D. My friends need their schedules." Miss D asked the turtles for their names and then went to collect the schedules for them."  
"Highschool is so different than what I thought it would be. I wonder what clique I'll be in?" Michelangelo said excitedly as they were waiting.  
"How about clique of the dingbat's shell for brains." Raph responded. A muscular guy walked over to them. Grace was tagging along behind him.  
"Hey you turtle, yeah you in the wheelchair. How dare you talk to my girl that way. Nobody crosses me, and if you cross my Gracie then you cross me."  
"Well your 'girl' was pissing off my girl and being a turtle of honour I was defending her. So put some spin on that ya piece a shit." Raph retaliated. Angel and Samie started whispering. The jock picked up on it.  
"If you two have something to say then say it. Don't whisper things about me, or I will take you out right here."  
"I would like to see you try." Samantha smiled at him willing him to argue with her a little more. She was ready for a fight having been woke up at 5.30 that morning by Mikey worrying about being late.  
"Samie. You better stay away from my little sister." Raph yelled, his temper was beginning to boil over. "If you do I will take you out do you understand."  
"Lets just go Brad. They aren't worth getting a detention on our permanent records for." Grace said before pulling Brad away from the red banded hothead.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly and ended with a meditation session with their father. It was the only time that Splinter thought of to tell them that they had to go back to school the next day.

a/n: I had to change it a little, or maybe a lot. I wasn't liking the way it was before so I rewrote most of it.


End file.
